Black Sports Trivia: Black Athletes Who Made History
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50 free Black Sports Trivia: Black Athletes Who Made History trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Black athletes have broken every colour line in sport, usually years before the rest of society caught up. This Black sports trivia quiz covers the pioneers and the record-breakers: Jack Johnson and Joe Louis, Jesse Owens in Berlin, Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, Wilma Rudolph, Bill Russell as the NBA's first Black head coach, Fritz Pollard, Kenny Washington, Marlin Briscoe and Doug Williams in football, Willie O'Ree in hockey, Wendell Scott in NASCAR, Charlie Sifford and Tiger Woods in golf, and Vonetta Flowers, the first Black athlete to win Winter Olympic gold. It also covers the modern greats and the milestones behind their names: Muhammad Ali, Hank Aaron, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Serena and Venus Williams, Usain Bolt, Flo-Jo, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Sheryl Swoopes, Naomi Osaka, Lewis Hamilton, Bubba Wallace, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, and Colin Kaepernick. Forty-five questions run from easy for casual fans to expert for sports historians, and every one is a specific fact rather than a vague 'first'. Every answer is checked against documented records rather than listicles, so it works for a Black History Month quiz, a classroom or a sports bar round.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On what date did Jackie Robinson break MLB's colour line, starting at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers?
April 15, 1947
April 15, 1947 was Jackie Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers debut at Ebbets Field; MLB marks the date as Jackie Robinson Day and retired his number 42 league-wide in 1997.
Q 02Which award did Jackie Robinson win in its inaugural season, 1947?
Rookie of the Year
Jackie Robinson won the first Rookie of the Year award in 1947, when a single award covered both leagues; he added the NL MVP in 1949.
Q 03Who was the American League's first Black player, debuting for Cleveland eleven weeks after Robinson?
Larry Doby
Larry Doby debuted for the Cleveland Indians on July 5, 1947, the American League's first Black player, and won a World Series with Cleveland in 1948.
Q 04Who founded the Negro National League in 1920?
Rube Foster
Rube Foster, owner-manager of the Chicago American Giants, organized the Negro National League at a Kansas City meeting in February 1920; he entered the Hall of Fame in 1981.
Q 05Who became MLB's first Black manager in 1975?
Frank Robinson
Frank Robinson became player-manager of the Cleveland Indians in 1975, MLB's first Black manager, and homered in his first game in charge on April 8.
Q 06Hank Aaron and which teammate hit a record 863 home runs as a pair?
Eddie Mathews
Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron hit 863 home runs as Braves teammates from 1954 to 1966, passing the 859 of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
Q 07Who was the first Black world heavyweight boxing champion, reigning from 1908 to 1915?
Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson beat Tommy Burns in Sydney on December 26, 1908 and held the title until Jess Willard stopped him in Havana in 1915; his 1910 win over James J. Jeffries sparked race riots.
Q 08How many consecutive title defences did Joe Louis make, a record for any weight class?
25
Joe Louis made 25 consecutive title defences between 1937 and 1948, a record for any division; his June 1937 to March 1949 reign was the heavyweight title's longest.
Q 09Muhammad Ali won light-heavyweight gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics at 18, boxing under which birth name?
Cassius Clay
Cassius Clay, as he was then, won light-heavyweight gold at 18 in Rome, turned professional later that year and joined the Nation of Islam in the early 1960s.
Q 10Muhammad Ali's 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle' in Zaire was fought against which opponent?
George Foreman
George Foreman lost his title to Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle; the Thrilla in Manila and the Fight of the Century were both against Joe Frazier.
Q 11Sugar Ray Robinson, often called the greatest boxer pound for pound, was born with what name?
Walker Smith Jr.
Sugar Ray Robinson was born Walker Smith Jr. in 1921 and took the name Ray Robinson from another amateur's AAU card; he fought professionally from 1940 to 1965.
Q 12Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in which city?
Berlin
In Berlin, Jesse Owens won the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay in front of Hitler's regime.
Q 13Wilma Rudolph overcame which childhood illness before winning three golds at the 1960 Rome Olympics?
Polio
Wilma Rudolph contracted polio as a young child and wore a leg brace; in Rome she became the first American woman to win three golds at one Games.
Q 21Venus Williams won five of her seven major singles titles at which tournament?
Wimbledon
Venus Williams won Wimbledon in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008 and the US Open in 2000 and 2001; she also took singles gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Q 22Naomi Osaka became the first player from which continent to hold the world number one singles ranking?
Asia
Naomi Osaka, representing Japan, became the first player from Asia to top the singles rankings in January 2019, after winning the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open.
Q 23Tiger Woods won his first major, the 1997 Masters, by how many strokes?
12
Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters by 12 strokes at 18 under par, both tournament records at the time, and reached world number one within a year of turning pro.
Q 14Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised black-gloved fists on the podium at which Olympics?
Mexico City 1968
Mexico City 1968: Smith had just become the first man to officially break 20 seconds in the 200m when he and Carlos raised their fists on October 16.
Q 15Florence Griffith Joyner's 100m world mark of 10.49, set in 1988, had what status in 2025?
It still stands
The wind gauge read 0.0 on a windy day, which has fuelled debate ever since.
Q 16Jackie Joyner-Kersee set a world record in which event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics?
Heptathlon
Her 7,291-point heptathlon at the 1988 Seoul Olympics set a world record that stood for decades; she won six Olympic medals across four Games.
Q 17What is Usain Bolt's 100m world record time?
9.58 seconds
He set it in 2009, the biggest improvement since electronic timing began.
Q 18Who was the first Black player to win a Grand Slam tennis title, taking the 1956 French Open?
Althea Gibson
Althea Gibson won the 1956 French Championships, then Wimbledon and the US Nationals in both 1957 and 1958.
Q 19Arthur Ashe is the only Black man to win singles titles at which three majors?
Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open
Arthur Ashe won the 1968 US Open, the 1970 Australian Open and Wimbledon in 1975; he was also the first Black player picked for the US Davis Cup team, in 1963.
Q 20How many major singles titles did Serena Williams win?
23
Serena Williams won 23 major singles titles between the 1999 US Open and the 2017 Australian Open, the most by a woman in the Open Era; she spent 319 weeks at world number one.
Q 24Which six-time National Negro Open champion joined the PGA Tour and won the 1967 Greater Hartford Open?
Charlie Sifford
Charlie Sifford, the PGA Tour's first Black member in 1961, won the 1967 Greater Hartford Open; Tiger Woods said that without him 'I probably wouldn't be here'.
Q 25Who became the NBA's first Black head coach in 1966?
Bill Russell
Bill Russell succeeded Red Auerbach as Celtics player-coach in 1966 and won two more titles in the role, in 1968 and 1969.
Q 26Who was the first African American to play in an NBA game, on October 31, 1950?
Earl Lloyd
Chuck Cooper was the first drafted and Sweetwater Clifton the first to sign a contract, but Lloyd played first.
Q 27Which team drafted Chuck Cooper in 1950, making him the first African American drafted into the NBA?
Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown drafted Chuck Cooper from Duquesne in the second round in April 1950, replying 'I don't care if he's striped, plaid or polka dot' when his race was raised.
Q 28Texas Western's 1966 NCAA title was historic because the Miners did what?
Started five Black players in the final
Texas Western started five Black players, the first all-Black starting lineup in a final, and beat an all-white Kentucky 72-65 at Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland.
Q 29Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won how many NBA MVP awards, a record?
Six
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won six MVP awards (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980), three with the Bucks and three with the Lakers, in a 20-season career.
Q 30Who was the first player signed by the WNBA?
Sheryl Swoopes
Sheryl Swoopes signed with the WNBA in October 1996, before the league's first season, and went on to win three WNBA MVPs and three Olympic golds.